By MONTE DUTTON

Lots of things I didn’t like as a kid I love today. I’ve got a lot more sense now. For all you kids out there in Internet Land, this is going to happen to you. You’re going to believe something all your life and wake up one morning to realize the opposite is true.

You will realize that what you know now is just the foundation upon which you will develop knowledge and wisdom. I was well into my 30s when I discovered the concept of wisdom.

I have always loved high-school football, though. I loved it because my daddy played it, and my brother played it, and I played it (sparingly). I probably love it more because I played it worse. I may have been trying to repent for 48 years. That’s one theory.

Yes, the cliché is Friday Night Lights, thanks to a famous book, movie and television series. The first Friday night, though, is an evening of mystery.

Hillcrest is heavily favored over Laurens, which it thumped, 41-7, last year, but Hillcrest has a new coach, and this team of Raiders is a new one, and high-school football is a matter of both tangible and intangible. A lot of it is built in the weight room, but a lot of it is built in the old-fashioned values of team, togetherness and French terms like esprit de corps and camaraderie.

Clinton is heavily favored over Batesburg-Leesville, which it thumped, 55-20, a year ago, but the Panthers may have gotten as much better in the past year as the Red Devils did the year before last. All bets are off, which is one of the reasons people bet.

Quite often what is on paper becomes blurred and indistinct once sweat hits it.

Regardless of what happens, the season has at least nine more opportunities to get better.

Tears for Fears sang “everybody wants to rule the world,” and that world, in high school, may be defined progressively in the county, the region and the state. At various times, Clinton, Laurens, Laurens Academy and Thornwell have all been the masters of their domains. I was on one of those teams, and I still don’t think anything has ever been better.

Play with reckless abandon while you still can, while, as John Hartford wrote and Glen Campbell sang, “your door is always open and your path is free to walk.” The future is full of deadlines and commitments. Enjoy the unfettered joy before the world gradually undermines it.

As the radio legend Paul Harvey once signed on an autographed photo, “Aim High.”

As fans, know that the lads are doing their best and the lads across the way are similarly motivated.

A football team, more than others due to sheer numbers alone, is an experiment in sociology. Eleven players at a time line up across from 11 others, both groups with the same outcome in mind. The roles mix and match, and every player has a part to play.

Some gotta win / Some gotta lose / Goodtime Charlie’s got the blues. – Danny O’Keefe

Maybe things’ll get a little better in the morning / Maybe things’ll get a little better – Hoyt Axton

Football coaches have a delicate task at hand. The different positions require different attributes of temperament, thought, dedication and valor. A linebacker can be on the edge of out of his mind and make 20 tackles. An offensive lineman can be similarly inflamed and not be able to do anything right. He’s got to abide the necessary attention to technique, footwork, and, oh, by the way, what’s the snap count?

Dare to be great. Even victors get knocked down a few times. Victors are the ones who get right back up and keep on keeping on, who, as a TCU coach named Dutch Meyer, said, “Fight ‘em till hell freezes over, then fight ‘em on the ice.”

Good teams try to win. Great teams expect it, and no amount of evidence to the contrary will dissuade them from the task at hand. The Duke of Wellington said the Battle of Waterloo was won on “the playing fields of Eton.” A football game is won on the practice fields, in the weight room, watching video, and, yes, even going to class.

Football doesn’t always produce great human beings, but ultimately, that is the goal of it and other sports. A kid needs to feel he is adept at something, and it may be in a band, whether marching or in a garage, on a stage, on a battlefield, in a church, or in an operating or court room.

I recommend football, though. It’s one of the pastimes I know.

The season’s upon us. Help me cover the county — and my beloved Furman Paladins — by sending a check to DHK Sports, P.O. Box 768, Clinton, S.C. 29325 or becoming a patron here. Support our advertisers and tell them we sent you. It’s going to be fun. Help make it, uh, funner.

I also make ends meet with the books I write. There’s something here to strike your fancy. They don’t cost much. Buy one or two or five.